Real Estate Information

Legal Information About the Real Estate Contract


The conclusion of final agreement between a seller and a buyer is the Agreement of Purchase and Sale. We know it as the real estate contract.

There are five mandatory requirements for a contract under contract law:

1. The name, address and contact data for the seller(s) and buyer(s).

2. A clear description of the property. We prefer the tax map and parcel number but a street address, or other clear description will do. Such as "parcel known as Hudson Farm, being 456 acres more or less fronting on west side of US Route One and County Rd. 264, being about 9 miles north of Rehoboth in Sussex County Delaware. The final description on the deed at settlement will contain the Book and Page number where it was purchased, a survey description and tax map ID. For the contract any clear description that could ONLY be the property being sold is sufficient. This can be the Tax I.D. number.

3. The price and terms of payment. For instance: cash at settlement in thirty days from the date of this contract. Here should also be noted the deposit or consideration which may be as little as one dollar BUT is normally 10% of the purchase price.

4. The date of the contract.

5. Signatures of all sellers and buyers.

Although the contract need not be written on the form provided by the Realtor, it is customary to do so. On larger properties a simple note is often written which include the above 5 items and says that a full contract will follow. Then, the short contract is followed by another formalized contract drawn up by the attorney for the buyer or the seller. That is then reviewed and usually changed to some degree by the attorneys for the other side of the transaction.

On larger and more complicated properties the contract can go to dozens or even hundreds of pages. The five items here must be included but hundreds or thousands of other items may need to be included for some properties.

Most contracts today, for residential homes, are written on the standard contract form authorized by the County Board of Realtors and provided by the purchaser's Realtor. The deposit money, or earnest money as it is sometimes called, is usually deposited in the escrow account of the selling Realtor.

Until all of the items above are included and ratified by all parties there is not a contract but only a "contract in progress" or an "offer" as we call it. This can be an offer to sell or an offer to buy and there may be several counter offers going back and forth as negotiations continue.

When everything is finalized the fully written and agreed upon document is said to be ratified. Even then the contract is not fully enforceable until it is conveyed, and received, in writing to all parties. THEN and only then can it be said to be a full and complete and enforcable contract.

Copyright © 2001-2005 www.JodyHudson.com

Source of this article is: http://www.kate-jody.com/essays/aboutrealestatecontract.html


MORE RESOURCES:

Press-Enterprise

REAL ESTATE: California receives up to $18 billion in multistate settlement
Press-Enterprise
“It is a good first step but only a step toward the solutions we need,” said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, a real estate consumer advocacy group. In California, the banks have guaranteed more than $12 billion ...
Will bank settlement help Florida's real estate market?Palm Beach Post (blog)
$25B settlement reached over foreclosure abusesSacramento Bee
States, banks reach foreclosure-abuse settlementAlbany Times Union
LoanSafe -KTAR.com
all 2,823 news articles »


Fort Worth Star Telegram

Evangelical real estate developer brought Santorum to North Texas
Fort Worth Star Telegram
If Rick Santorum eventually wins Texas Republicans over, one of Texas' leading real estate developers should share credit. Last month, Jeff Blackard of the McKinney-based Blackard Group went undercover in South Carolina as a walk-in Santorum volunteer.
Donald Trump: Rick Santorum 'Wants To Be President? Give Me A Break' (VIDEO)Huffington Post

all 563 news articles »


Bloomberg

Shrinking the foreclosed real estate glut
Boston Globe
But it isn't going to fix the nation's residential real estate mess. That mess - millions of homeowners underwater on their mortgages, a stagnant residential sales market that lacks buyers and a clog of foreclosed property - can't be cleaned up with ...
REAL ESTATE: Refinancing program expands for Fannie/Freddie borrowersPress-Enterprise
Online Offers for HomePath Properties Expanded by Fannie MaeLoanSafe
Fannie Mae Expands Online Offers for HomePath® PropertiesSYS-CON Media (press release)

all 161 news articles »


The Free Lance-Star

Vakos Real Estate opened this week in the Southpoint II shopping center.
The Free Lance-Star
BY BILL FREEHLING BY BILL FREEHLING One of the Fredericksburg area's oldest and most prominent development firms has started a full-service real estate brokerage arm. Vakos Real Estate opened this week in a 5200-square-foot space next to a Tropical ...
Who's who at new Vakos Real Estate firmFredericksburg.com (blog)

all 4 news articles »


Real Estate Agent Highlights New Technologies by Bicycling 700 Miles to Mid ...
MarketWatch (press release)
His route takes him across the breadth of four states and through 12 overnight stops, ending on stage before an expected 4000 attendees of the Coldwell Banker Real Estate's International Business Conference. Dyer aims to use a 150-year-old ...

and more »


DOJ: Three NorCal Real Estate Investors Agree to Plead Guilty to Bid Rigging ...
San Francisco Chronicle (blog)
Three Northern California real estate investors have agreed to plead guilty today for their roles in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California, the Department of Justice (DOJ) ...
Three to plead guilty in foreclosure auction fraudSan Jose Mercury News

all 6 news articles »


Real-Estate Crash Aids the Green Movement
Wall Street Journal
By LAURA KUSISTO The real-estate crash left pockets of the region's rural areas littered with the remnants of would-be golf courses, shopping centers and luxury subdivisions that never got off the ground. But the market swoon has yielded an unexpected ...



ETF Trends

Top 10 Global Real Estate ETFs
TheStreet.com
By Dave Fry 02/09/12 - 03:03 PM EST There is currently an expanding list of nearly a dozen ETFs oriented to primarily to global REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) with more on the way no doubt. In the following analysis we stick with our top ten ...
Investments for Income-LoversMotley Fool

all 24 news articles »


CBRE Clarion Global Real Estate Income Fund (NYSE: IGR) Declares Monthly ...
EON: Enhanced Online News (press release)
PHILADELPHIA--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The Board of Trustees of the CBRE Clarion Global Real Estate Income Fund (NYSE: IGR) (the “Fund”) declared a monthly distribution of $0.045 per share for the month of February 2012. The following dates apply: ...

and more »


South Bay commercial real estate market heats up
San Jose Mercury News
Silicon Valley developers are racing to erect office and R&D buildings to meet a fresh surge of expansions by tech companies that's turning the region into a commercial real estate boomtown. Last year, the South Bay added about 26000 employees, ...

and more »

Google News

home | site map
© 2006